It was bad enough having to contend with Captain Marvel, but now Superman-DC (the nickname given to comics from National Allied Publications and Detective Comics Inc. as they unofficially merged) had to deal with Captain America as well. One was a living childhood fantasy; the other was a super-idealized form of what happens when you mix nationalism and super heroics. Yeah, Superman’s great, but he’s a grown up while Captain Marvel is actually still a kid doing amazing things. And it’s fun watching Batman and Robin take on the Joker with nothing but their manpower and wits, but Captain America is fighting the real threat of German spies. While both Batman and Superman are certainly not devoid of neither childhood fantasy nor real world danger (or at least as real as it gets in terms of comic book writing), those subjects did not feature as strongly in their stories. So how did they contend with characters that used them as a solid foundation?

While he still had a little ways to go in terms of reaching Superman levels of fame, Batman was still a pretty big hit for National Comics. But with the addition of Robin, that popularity doubled to the point where National thought it would be a good idea to give him his own title. Even with characters like Superman, there was always a little trepidation on giving a character their own magazine. Mostly because there was always the question of: “well, yeah…People like their individual stories, but will they read four consecutive stories with that character?” So far, Superman’s appearances in two magazines hadn’t hurt his image. But Batman wasn’t Superman…

GREETINGS MIDTOWN BLOG GIANTS! This is the 2nd part of our 4 part look at the New 52, six months later. If you missed part, you can find it here. Why are we doing this, Bloggerbowl Champeen? Because most opening story arcs have wrapped at this point and now we have a better idea of the direction of the book. So on with week 2!